12th Sunday in Ordinary Time B

Jonathan Edward Shaw 

 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time B

Readings: Job 38:1,8-11,  2 Corinthians 5:14-17             Mark 4:35-41

            This Sunday’s readings plunge us into the storm of suffering and fear which is a part of our lives as Christians, but we are also assured of God’s saving power through Christ in the midst of our distress.  The verses of the responsorial psalm capture the hope of this Sunday’s liturgy: “They cried to the Lord in their distress;/ from their straits he rescued them./  He hushed the storm to a gentle breeze,/ and the billows of the sea were stilled” (Ps 107:28-29).  Let us joyfully thank God for our deliverance from the power of sin and evil through Christ’s death and resurrection in the words of the refrain to our responsorial psalm: “Give thanks to the Lord, his love is everlasting.”

            The Old Testament reading is from the Lord’s awe inspiring speeches to Job out of the storm at the conclusion of that book.  Although Job is perfectly righteous, we learn in the prologue (chapters 1-2) that he has been singled out by Satan for testing to see if his righteousness is based solely on the blessings that God has bestowed on him.  Job loses all his possessions and children and is afflicted with sores “from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.”  Throughout the long dialogue with his three so-called “friends”, Job struggles mightily to fathom the reason for his sufferings.  He rejects their “ashy maxims” which insist that he must have sinned and is being punished.  He bravely demands justice from God and concludes by asking God for an indictment, stating his sins (see chapter 31).  Finally, the Lord speaks to Job and not to his friends who have refused to consider that he may be innocent.  In his speeches the Lord does not answer Job’s questions about the reason for his sufferings.  Rather he questions Job about the limits of human wisdom and thereby reveals His mighty power in bringing order to all creation, including the chaotic waters of the sea.  Job’s suffering and endurance bring him face to face with the Lord in his awesome rule over creation.  In the section included in our reading Job is asked, “Who shut within doors the sea/ when it burst forth from the womb . . .?”  In ancient Near Eastern mythology, the sea is a god who is associated with chaos and is the dwelling place of frightening animals like Leviathan (see Job 40:25-41:26).  But now the Lord reminds Job that He is the one who “set limits for it/ and fastened the bar of its door,/ and said: thus far shall you come but no farther,/ and here shall your proud waves be stilled.”  Job’s encounter with the Lord’s awe inspiring rule over creation restores his relation to him, even without receiving an explanation for his suffering.  Job’s final words are an expression of submission and trust: “I know that You can do everything,/ that nothing you propose is impossible for You. . . . Indeed, I spoke without understanding/ of things beyond me, which I did not know. . . .  I had heard of You with my ears,/ but now I see You with my eyes;/ therefore I recant and relent/, being but dust and ashes” (42:1-6).

The Epistle reading is taken from a section of Second Corinthians in which Paul is defending his gospel and apostolic ministry to this troubled community.  So-called “super-apostles” have come to Corinth boasting of their ability to work miracles and preaching a gospel of glory (see 2 Cor 10-13).  They have attempted to undermine Paul’s reputation and authority.  Paul, in contrast, preaches a gospel featuring Christ’s saving death and resurrection in behalf of all which impels the true apostle to a selfless love entailing suffering in behalf of the gospel. “The love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore, all have died.  He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”  The victory of Christ’s resurrection as a second Adam has defeated the power of “the flesh” and begun the new creation. Paul’s own encounter with the risen Christ has completely changed his outlook.  He is now an ambassador for Christ and the new creation.  He boldly proclaims: “So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.”

             The Gospel account of Jesus’ calming of the storm is the conclusion of Mark’s long parable chapter. It focuses our attention on the terror of the disciples in the midst of the storm and Jesus’ God-like power in rebuking the wind and calming the sea. The disciples have left their homes and livelihoods to follow Jesus, have witnessed his exorcisms and healing miracles and have even been given a share in his healing ministry (chapters 1-3).  Jesus has said to them earlier in chapter 4, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you” (4:13).  They have heard his parables of the sower, the lamp, the seed growing secretly, and the mustard seed which spoke of the ultimate triumph of the kingdom of God, despite opposition and small beginnings (4:1-34).  But now as evening comes, Jesus says to them, “Let us cross to the other side (of the Sea of Galilee).”  They are now going to the Gentile territory of the Gerasenes on the other side of the Sea where Jesus will exorcise a legion of demons from a possessed man by allowing them to go into a herd of swine who rush into the sea (5:1-20).  As they take Jesus in the boat along with other boats, he is asleep in the stern and a violent storm comes up and the waves begin to fill up the boat.  Suddenly the disciples are panic stricken and franticly awake Jesus with the words “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”  These words capture the fears of the Church in every generation as she tries to follow Jesus into new and difficult situations.  Jesus’ subsequent actions and words are both consoling and challenging.  He awakens and rebukes and wind and commands the sea, like the Lord in the Job reading: “Quiet!  Be still!” But when the wind has ceased and there is a great calm, he chastises the disciples for their lack of faith, “Why are your terrified?  Do you not yet have faith?”  At this point in Mark’s narrative, they do not yet fully realize who they have with them in their trials and difficulties.  Mark concludes the episode by noting, “They were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?’  May we believing Christians have the faith to answer this question.